


The Mystery of Percival Graves' Marriage

by StrawberryLane



Series: The Mystery of Percival Graves' Marriage [1]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Marriage, Misunderstandings, Off-screen Relationship(s), POV Outsider, Workaholic Original Percival Graves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 09:00:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9227960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberryLane/pseuds/StrawberryLane
Summary: Now, Manny is no expert on how to announce your relationship or your happiness that such a big event as marriage has taken place, because it's been over thirty years since he experienced it for himself, but if Rebecca and Steven down on the third floor, his lunch buddies from Care of Magical Beasts Department, are any indication, you usually shout if from the rooftops and, you know, actually invite people to your wedding. And you're ridiculously happy for a somewhat ridiculous long period of time, possibly unable to stop smiling at the mere mention of your chosen partner.Problem is, Percival Graves looks no different than he usually does. He hasn't even given any indication to the fact that he even was in a relationship, for Merlin's sake.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Tiếng Việt available: [The Mystery of Percival Graves' Marriage](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9907046) by [Wish_Upon_A_Star](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wish_Upon_A_Star/pseuds/Wish_Upon_A_Star)



> Based on [this](http://fantasticbeasts-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/459.html?thread=1000651#cmt1000651) prompt from the kinkmeme.
> 
> Edit: Thank you for all the hits, kudos, bookmarks and comments! Means a lot!

Manuel "Manny" Luna has worked at MACUSA's headquarters for over thirty five years. He's an auror, halfblood, and his Ilvermorny house was Pukwudgie, something that he was, and will always be very proud of. He is a father of three children, two girls and one boy, all three between the ages ten to twenty and he has been married for almost thirty years. He's happy.

If you work as an auror for MACUSA, chances are you get to meet Percival Graves, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at least once. The man is very efficient when it comes to his work, but his somewhat grumpy personality and his tendency to steamroll straight over those who disagree with him makes him a bit of a difficult person to actually befriend.

Which is why Manny is very amazed to find that the man apparently got married, if the golden ring glinting in the sunlight is any indication. It's a subtle ring, and Manny probably wouldn't even have noticed it if it hadn't been for the sunlight. Now, Manny is no expert on how to announce your relationship or your happiness that such a big event as marriage has taken place, because it's been over thirty years since he experienced it for himself, but if Rebecca and Steven down on the third floor, his lunch buddies from Care of Magical Beasts Department, are any indication, you usually shout if from the rooftops and, you know, actually invite people to your wedding. And you're ridiculously happy for a somewhat ridiculous long period of time, possibly unable to stop smiling at the mere mention of your chosen partner.

Problem is, Percival Graves looks no different than he usually does. He hasn't even given any indication to the fact that he even was in a relationship, for Merlin's sake. He doesn't look ridiculously happy whenever someone mentions his spouse's name, but that might be because no one knows the name of the woman he married.

News travel fast at MACUSA, and in a way that never ceases to amaze Manny. By the time he sits down at his usual table, with his usual lunch in front of him, with Rebecca and Steven (yes, they're married, it was recently and Manny was a guest of honor), the whole building already know that Graves is married. The man's secretary, Isabella Fletcher, is being hounded by both single witches and by wizards, all of whom refuse to leave her in peace unless she tells them the name of the woman who stole the Director of Magical Security's heart. Percival Graves is an attractive man, even Manny can see that, and the man has a lot of hearts in the building beating for him. He even became "Crush of the year," in an unofficial poll Bethany Burrows held last year.

He hadn't much cared for that, as far as Manny knew. Telling them all to leave the childish games behind, they were grown up witches and wizards, were they not?

Manny has never really understood what all these people see in his boss, but apparently someone sees something enough to actually marry the man.

*

Rumors fly about MACUSA's headquarters all the time – sometimes literally – and by Friday, roughly four days after Graves turned up to work with a ring on his finger, the rumors about him and his wife have grown tenfold. Apparently Graves has been married for years, only choosing to reveal after the horrifying time he went through with Gellert Grindelwald, because he realized that life is short and his wife deserved better than being kept a secret. Another rumor says Graves got married after getting freed from Grindelwald's chains because he realized he might die at any moment and life is short as it is. Yet another rumor says that Graves' met his wife while undercover at a speakeasy. Another one says Graves got married in Brazil. His wife is a house elf. He met his wife in France and she's a no-maj, which is why he doesn't speak of her. He secretly married Tina Goldstein (though the woman herself scoffs at these rumors and goes back to sending letters to her new boyfriend, that crazy suitcase guy. He has become somewhat of a legend in the MACUSA lunch room). His wife is really a man. Point is, the list of rumors about Graves and his new spouse is getting longer and weirder by the hour, if not minute.

Graves himself doesn't say a word on the subject, only telling Isabella the secretary that she can tell people to mind their own damn business if they come to her with questions about his marriage and not things of actual importance.

Keeping quiet doesn't actually help the man's case, sadly enough. It only serves to intensify people's curiosity about his personal life and the unofficial party committee, lead by Bethany Burrows and Magdalena Elwert, decide that the following month is a perfect month for holding the first (annual) bring your spouse to work day. It's an all day event, complete with a dinner and party later in the evening. Bethany and Magdalena even come up with prizes for the longest married couple and the cutest couple and the most compatible couple. Attendance is mandatory, no excuses accepted, not even dragon pox.

All in the name of finding out who actually got to marry Percival Graves.

"No," is all Graves says when he receives his invitation and that seems to be the end of that.

Except it's not, because suddenly it's the following month, and Manny and Carlotta, dressed to the nines in their finest robes, attend the party and dinner in the evening. Carlotta spent a few hours at Manny's desk earlier during the day, before having to go back to her own place of work. As noticed by the whole office, Graves arrived alone in the morning and remained so during the entirety of the day. That brought some muttering on, but then again it didn't actually prove that Graves' wife wouldn't be at the party, because there were plenty of workers who hadn't brought their spouses with them, on account of their spouses having jobs of their own.

The dinner takes place in MACUSA's lunch room, which sounds like it would be boring but isn't because there are some seriously talented wizards and witches on the now completely official party committee, who have outdone themselves in decorating the place. The food is spectacular, and Manny goes back for thirds of everything. After dinner the awards are handed out; Dymphna Oswald, age 105, and her husband, Ewill Oswald, age 103, get the award for longest married couple (a whole 85 years!), Honoria Dippet and Crispin Marrerro for cutest couple and Mirima Gobblert and Safiya Lirkin the award for most compatible couple.

Percival Graves doesn't even show up, claiming to have been held up with work. No one actually believes him to be telling the truth.

*

A few months pass by, and the gossip about Percival Graves and his wife dies down. Sort of. If by "die down" you mean "is not spoken about at all minutes of the work day." It's still spoken about a whole lot, but people have begun to realize Graves will not make a huge announcement involving dragons flying in the sky, writing sentences with their fire and smoke in the sky, anytime soon. Graves just isn't that kind of guy. He's not interested in romantic gestures. They just have to accept the fact that they will probably never know who was lucky enough to marry Percival Graves – or unlucky, perhaps, depending on what your view of the man is.

Because there's a growing amount of staff who, instead of supporting Graves in his marriage, have begun to suspect that maybe things aren't as happy as they would like to believe. Something's got to be fishy if the man doesn't even want to say his spouse's name out loud.

Manny tries to keep out of it. It's not his place to gossip about what his boss is like in his own private home.

Until it is.

Manny's enjoying his lunch together with Rebecca and Steven one sunny day in the beginning of spring when he sees Graves walk past outside the lunch room, the hand not wearing his wedding ring clasped tightly around the upper arm of a young man. Graves is more or less dragging the young man, who has a hat on, keeping Manny from actually seeing anything other than a bunch of unruly hair, along. They're walking quickly towards the director's office. Well, Graves is walking briskly, the young man is stumbling along, trying to keep pace with the older man. Manny leans forward in his seat to see the door fall shut behind them, Isabella the secretary staring at it from her desk, dumbfounded. She looks as Manny feels. Who the hell was that? The only way you actually get to enter Graves' office (especially after the fiasco that was Gellert Grindelwald) is if you're the president of the wizarding world, Isabella the secretary, Tina Goldstein or, as Isabella the secretary informed whoever would listen – which was everybody – Mr Graves' spouse.

If you're none of the above, Percival Graves will come to you, rather than move his wards around to recognize you. He has a lot of protective wards on his office, both to keep things out, but also, rumor has it, to keep things inside if he wants to.

What all of this means, though, is that the young man, because Manny is reasonably sure he is not the President, Isabella the secretary or Tina Goldstein, must be Graves' spouse.

As in, Graves is married to a man. Who is no older than twenty five at the most.

Manny's oldest daughter looks like she's about the same age as the young man who just disappeared into Graves office and Manny feels sick at the thought that his daughter could actually be married now. In another world his baby, his little girl, could've been long married to someone like Percival Graves.

No, best not think about that.

The fact that someone who was definitively not the president, Tina Goldstein or Isabella the secretary entered Graves' office and (presumably) lived to tell the tale, spreads like wildfire through the office and Manny has to fight to actually get back to his desk after lunch. The entire area of open space in front of Mr Graves' office is full of people, all of whom do their best to pretend they actually have a reason for being there. "I've run out of ink and need to borrow some," is a popular excuse, it seems.

After a minor eternity the door to Graves' office finally open and all of those who have lingered around turn to stare at the doorway. Isabella the secretary is trembling. Bethany Burrows and Magdalena Elwert are giggling excitedly in a corner, being shushed by Alberic Allerton, an older wizard, who until this point of the tale always claimed to be entirely above common office gossip.

The young man is the first to step out, and the crowd goes silent, studying him. The minute he notices them, his pale face flushes bright red and he hunches even further into himself than he already was when he stepped out of Graves' office. Manny watches as the young man fumbles with his hat to get it into his head, the ring on his third finger on his left hand reflecting the harsh light of the office space. It seems they've found the spouse, after all.

Manny doesn't have time to reflect on this new information though, because a second later Graves' comes through the door and joins his young husband in front of the crowd. Frowning, Graves places a hand on the young man's back and gives him an encouraging push forward, in response to which the young man takes a stumbling step.

"Don't you all have work to do?" Graves asks the crowd, ignoring his husband's stumbling in favor of glaring at the crowd until people suddenly remember that, yes, they do have work to do. Manny doesn't have to leave though, because he's already at his desk, and so he watches as Graves marches off down the hall, followed by the young man he married.

The young man who didn't even dare look anyone else in the eyes.

*

After that, the rumors about Mr Graves and his – now known to be husband – spouse intensify once again. But this time, they aren't all "Who actually married workaholic Percival Graves?" and "Why wasn't it me?!" but actually more "What's the young man's name?" and "Did you see how meek he was?"

In fact, Graves' somewhat dubious popularity at MACUSA takes a nosedive. Bethany Burrows begin telling anyone who stands still for two seconds in the hallway how she has seen the young man together with Graves before, at a Sunday market place in no-maj New York no less. The young man, she says, had been walking a few steps behind Graves the whole time she had seen them. The husband had been staring at the ground and trying to not draw any attention to himself. He had even flinched violently when Mr Graves turned towards him, she says. When asked, Bethany Burrows is suddenly incapable of remembering why she herself was in a no-maj market place.

If Graves notices his declining popularity, he doesn't give any indication. The man comes to work early as always and leaves late, as he always has. He speaks only to those he has too, to delegate cases and tasks between different aurors. He still doesn't speak a word about his marriage.

This goes on until another couple of months later, when Tina Goldstein's boyfriend – crazy suitcase guy – arrives back in New York. Manny is, as usual when important office gossip things happen, eating his lunch in the lunch room when crazy suitcase guy enters the room, accompanied by no one other than the young man who is Graves' husband. The suitcase guy makes for the only free seats in the room – the table next to Manny – and Graves' husband follows him.

They sit down, suitcase guy placing his suitcase on the table between them, talking to it. Graves' husband, seemingly unaware that the whole room is watching them intently, listens, with a serious expression on his face, to suitcase guy tell stories of his adventures, until suitcase guy interrupts himself to say "Here comes Percival, Credence," at which the husband's – Credence's – face changes into the most blinding, happy, dorky expression Manny has ever seen. Credence gets up from his seat and walks across the whole cafeteria to meet Graves in the doorway. Once he reaches the other man he leans into Graves' touch in a way that makes everyone else in the room avert their gazes because it just seems so... private.

"I don't think you've got anything to worry about," suitcase guy says, and it takes Manny a moment to realise that suitcase guy is talking to him. "I've studied animals body language for a long time, and they're not so different from humans, would you believe it. It might be clear as day to you now that you've seen it, but that embrace? It's the real thing. You'd be hard-pressed to find a couple as content together as those two."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it and thanks for reading!


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